Respect

Mandasue Heller’s new heroine is a fifteen-year-old Manchester girl who is both brave and determined to do the right thing. But that may not be enough to save her from a lethal cocktail of violence. From the author praised by Martina Cole and Jeffery Deaver.

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Chantelle is a good student who only wants to pass her exams and find a way out of the sink estate in Manchester where she grew up. But with her mother taking off to Spain with her latest boyfriend, Chantelle is single-handedly raising her tearaway nine-year-old brother Leon. She thinks her worst problem is the debt collectors at the door.

But Leon has made some new friends: teenage gang members who have given him a mobile phone, a knife – and some drugs to hide in her flat.

A part-time job seems to be the answer to Chantelle’s prayers. But the violence is about to come home to her – with a vengeance. And the only person who’s offering any help seems to be just as bad as the people she’s trying to escape from . . .

(P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton Limited